Heading to Yardie Creek Exmouth in 3 weeks, will be fishing around the beaches, require some info on what i will catch and what to take. Want to use poppers and get as many different species as possible

Went far a quick morning fish today up Dampier Creek, managed to get my first barra at 54cm just undersize but it was great just to catch one. We got a few of the usual bycatch of Cod and Catfish which kept us busy for our quick session. Now to get my first legal!!

I feel like these pics are so second-class putting them up after having a look through Daz' photos of Christmas Island...

One thing you won't find on the Monties as opposed to Christmas Island is greenery.  The islands must take an absolute flogging from mother nature - the shrubs are low, most rocks exposed to any sort of swell are pockmarked and so sharp that to fall on them would be messy.  Where the tidal currents rip through as the water pours out from between the islands, exposed rocks and outcrops are worn away.  But all that raw nature still takes your breath away, it's awesome.

We didn't spend much time on the islands, we had a look at some of the remains from the nuclear testing but other than that the remaining time was to flick lures around while we waited for tea to be cooked and the boat prepared for tucker time.

How's the tide.

How's the serenity

The best way to enjoy the serenity is always to immerse yourself in it, so we made the most of it most nights after a few refreshing drinks it was time for a swim

Other than the main species shown in Part 1 we did get onto a lot of other fish:

The two highlight fish of the trip were:

This thumping cod that took me an age to bring up.  Unfortunately the second pic doesn't give a true indication of how big it was.  It was a thumper, in my realm of cod catching anyway.  We estimated it at being around 30-35kg.  After we took a couple of quick shots he went back in and we swum him for quite a while.  We attached about six 24oz sinkers onto the largest release weight and sent him back down.  He didn't come back up, that we saw anyway, so hopefully it pulled through okay.

But the last fish of the trip was definately the best.  It was Wednesday evening, we were on our way home and it was just going dark, and one of the TLDs started screaming.  Unfortunately (for me) it was Jared's turn on the rods so he picked it up, let the fish run a bit, and then sank the hooks.  Fifteen minutes later he brought up this beaut little black, his first billfish and the only one for the trip to make it back to the boat.  It was an awesome way to finish the trip.

Karma caught up with him for taking my fish (I was the next on the rods - but after we got that one we pulled them up and that was it for the trip) and as soon as the sun went down and he lost the horizon he began telling the dolphins about what he'd eaten for tea.  Hurl time. (Revenge is sweet when you're the one putting up the report!)

And so that brought the end to an epic five days in the Monties with Bluejuice.

We thought it couldn't get any better but of course it did - we found the Planet Burger Bar for tea the following night, man those burgers cranked! (See below) And then we managed to bump into Adam (thanks to his FW shirt) as he was flying to Perth to head off to the Cook Islands.

Great trip all round and we're all hoping we can give it another go again soon!

Decided to take the missus out for a break from the kids this morning. Bought her a Pink Shimano Lipstix and an Okuma Femme Fatale and she was keen to get it wet. Got out to our destination and wasted no time in gettin some soft plastics twitchin around. A few taps straight up saw us bringing in tail-less lures. We persisted in flickin and didn't have to wait too long for the sounder to pick up a decent school under our drift. With hopes high we tried our best to entice a hit then both of us got hits, both thinking we were snagging weed. We were on at the same time. Unfortunately wifey's run was short lived. After a 10 minute fight on my 6'6" Ugly Stick and a lot of excitement on both our parts, we landed a 5Kg 77cm Snapper. My first size Snapper. Handbrake had her fun with a nice sweep which kept her happy and more importantly interested! It was our first time out "deep" together so was doing my best to keep her interested. After a friendly visit from fisheries we called it a day at 10. Handbrake is slowly getting the bug and I'm sure a nice Dhuey or Pinky should do the trick.

Another exciting trip to CI has concluded. The last year had escaped me too quickly & I felt as though I was there only a month ago.

As with any exotic sport fishing trip, you usually spend countless hours preparing your gear for brutal punishment. Ensuring you have adequate terminal tackle & sufficient lures is also just as important. There simply isn’t any room for sub standard tackle, poor knots & ill technique. It’s a matter of going hard or going home & having the appropriate equipment to do the task is fundamental.

The waters of Christmas Island offer exceptional diversity, from throwing poppers to GT’s to jigging Ruby Snapper meters away. You just need to look at the island to get a sense of what it looks like underwater.

Mark from Shorefire Charters is a true local with decades of local knowledge & experience, but most importantly, he is a down to earth bloke that is a pleasure to be spending time with. His wife makes sensational food & they really are great people.

Unfortunately, every fishing trip will be affected by a number of variables which can include poor weather & abnormal water temperatures. Water temp registered a mid 28 to 29 degrees which is extremely high in September. These high temperatures obviously affect plenty of temperate fish species & Yellow Fin tuna was the most obvious for us. Last year the YFT action was chaotic, however, this year, the schools remained quite deep which simply meant to fish jigs rather than throw surface offerings.

In a nutshell, we experienced high water temps, plenty of northerly winds, daily squally weather, high swells & at times, pond like conditions. It was a matter of dealing with what was being thrown at us & being diverse in our fishing approach. If poppers didn’t attract attention, we’d throw a stick bait & if darting jigs didn’t work, we used a sliding jig.

The trip was memorable, with plenty of quality fish being landed. Being bricked was a common occurrence on the jigging scene – 6 Andaman’s were lost within 2 hours on day 3.

We raised good GT’s, YFT, Wahoo, Red Bass, Jobbies, Blue fin Trevs, Mahi Mahi & many others, whilst jigging, we encountered, Jobbies, Black Trevs, Coro Trout, Tomato Cod, YFT, Sail Fish, Oblique banded Snapper & dogs.

My most exciting experiences of this trip included a sail fish that took an Andaman, only to be fought to the boat until it threw the hook, followed by, losing what was a good dog 10 meters under the boat. The dog was hooked mid water, stripped line to get to the underwater cliff face, then worked back to the boat only to have 1 last surge & snap the leader. The leader had been shredded by structure & the dog laid belly up under the boat & sank down instead of floating up! Bummer.

Trip 3, 2011, has already been booked & if last year is anything to go by, time will fly.

Oh, and I just received an email from Rocky letting me know he went out on a solo effort this morning & landed a 60+kg YFT. Amazing!

A few pics are below.

Daz.

Hi All

Heading up to Greenough and Geraldton next weekend. Anyone know how the fishing is up there? (beach fishing)

Would love to know, also do you know if there is any charters up there worthwhile for a day trip?

Cheers guys 

Alex

Following on from JohnF's report earlier in the week, here are the photos from the awesome day in Jurien on the weekend. Easily the best day fishing I've ever had, getting a baldy and pb dhu of 5kg certainly made my day! Gave the PE4 Xzoga and Stella 1000SW a good workout, only 2 demersals caught on jigs all day (possibly due to the lack of drift), John got a baldy and I got my first fish on a jig (only a goatfish but a start).

My brother Pete had the most pb's as has done most of his fishing up north; pb dhu, pinky, sambo and a double header sambo on bait, which was something I never thought I'd see!

A total of 6 baldy's from 440 to 490, 5 dhu's including a 5kg, 7.5kg, 10kg and 12kg and 3 decent pinkies (and one bb and a small sambo that were in too bad shape to send back down).

Thanks again to Whitey and Matt for a great day on the water.

Cheers.

Probably been posted already and if it hasn't, I expect it will be another 10 times as it hits the emails (like the Fitzroy *cough* barra)

The action took place 2 days ago in the North Atlantic Coast and at about 170 miles off the coast in the direction of New Foundland At the time the main goal of the trip was again to spot giant atlantic tuna and to do some video... In particular, at the time they do hunting herring school wich are plentifull in August there. If you plan to do this hunt the luck is the master of the game, because these great pelagics do moving all the time along the North America coast and swimming from 100 to 150 miles per day! The weather is the second parameter, because the sea must be calm if you intend to see the "herring run" and to luckily spot tuna. Great mako and white sharks do often take part to the quarry, this is the third unforseeable parameter.. After 3 days boating in the best weather conditions, we finally could spot on the surface a predation action: a lot of birds, two whales.Tuna were probably there hunting in a school. Each time this kind of action can last several minutes or less, then the tuna school vanishes to the depths.

I jumped from the boat among the "slaughter". Hundred and hundred birds were hunting the herrings The water temperatur was there at about 19 C degree and pretty much colder in the depth. The water was green, dirty and the visi fair at about 2 meter range . I did diving equiped with a wood speargun : the shaft with a special spear tip wich can penetrate the thick tuna skin and do not rip the meat when it get pulled. I dove at about 50feet depth where the visi was better and I could observe a couple of time massive tunas swimming fast and moving sometimes like rockets to the surface while hunting fiercely... . I have been freediving for years several times among these fishes: it's each time the same incredible and amazing "rodeo".

They do coming from nowhere and eating all the fish to the last... then they take off in a split of minutes. As usually you never find a middle size tuna because in this kind of school wich is only made of massive fish: the school was made there only of 600 to about 900lb tuna... I did several dives from 40 to 70 ft depth but I could not spot any tuna again. Probably several hundred tuna were hunting herrings, did they move away? At the time I was thinking " aiming and shooting a giant tuna is paradoxicaly pretty hard: the target is wide, but the fish is moving fast at about 10 feet per second in changing its path all the time..." a silvery and black blue huge shape swam suddenly in front of me then under my fins... I aimed the tuna in front of the head at about 6 feet range and shot. The shaft hit the fish in the middle of the body! The tuna vanished in a spilt of second in taking the bungee to the depth. I grabbed it and got towed as if I should be a buoy. The power of this fish is unthinkable. I speared in summer 2009 in the Strait of Gibraltar an about 1,000lb tuna and the fight lasted about 3 hours. I have been towed without a break by this huge speared fish on about 15 miles and lost it at night. After about thirty seconds a short break,I could get back to the surface, then the tuna took off again. The fight lasted about an hour.

I suddenly felt less resistance while trying to pull the line, in vain because the fish was to heavy and I could not check it. The tuna stayed motionless at about 120ft depth and I got exhausted. The fish was dead. It has been gaffed by the captain and attached at the bow then landed on the deck with a crane. The fish could be checked: the spear tip worked perfectly, got jammed under the skin. The shaft hit first probably the spineThe shaft hit first probably the spine Fish has not been weighted. The length was 124"/ 3m17 and girth 88"/ 2m23!! The weigth estimated between 1,200 and 1,250lbs. .

Gear used for the catch: -An home-made 69" teakwood tuna gun (St. Alexander style) equiped with a (3/8) 72'' long spear Riffe and a home-made slip tip (harpoon dart style) -The spear is connected to the gun with a 3 mm stainless steel plastic-coated cable. Swivels, snaps, sleeves... are about 600lb resistant. -Five 20 mm elastic bands. . -The float line is a 75' Riffe bungie (550lb nylon line core) and the float system is T Botha board (I improved in some details) + an inflatable Riffe buoy connected to the board by a North Water Wedge SpectrX Throw Bag (used in Kayaking . Probably the greatest fish ever taken by a spearo!

Philippe Virgili info@spearfishingmotion.com

Hey folks,

Spent most of last week up in Leeman and a large chunk of it trying to hunt some decent fish. For those that don't like to read - the beaches were in poor condition generally due to weed and not much was on the bite anywhere last week.

Day 1 - went for an evening bash at Coolimba jetty just after sundown. Was surprised to find no baitfish on the bite at all. Stayed a few hours for one bite, a nice little wobbegong that would have been around 5-7kg. He was released courtesy of a badly timed gaff shot. :-)

Day 2 - dawn session on the Leeman jetty produced nothing. No squid. No bait fish. Not even a blowie bite. Water was dirty and full and weed. Scoped out the coast from Leeman through to Arrowsmith looking for a nice spot to spend the evening session. Entire coast was chockers with weed (Gum Tree, Knobby, Palm Springs) - the exception was Illawong which must have a been a bit sheltered. Popped up to Denison / Dongara and the beaches immediately north had some fantastic deep gutters and were relatively weed free. Went back to Illawong in the evening only to find gale force winds coming in off the coast with rain too. Gave up about an hour after dark as the weather got too much for me. In hindsight should have gone further north.

Day 3 - decided to head south in search of a beach worth fishing. Checked out Little Anchorage, Ti Tree Bay, etc. All were full of weed both on the beach and in the water. Ended up at Sandy Cape just north of Jurien and while there was a bit of weed around, the sheltered bay looked worth a crack. Burleyed up but again no sign of any bait fish at all. Cruised down to Jurien and threw a line at the marina. Again no sign of any bait fish and with some big winds picking up and rain on the move I packed up. Went for an evening fish off the cliffs near Taylor Bay. Didn't expect much due to the murkey / weedy water. A big stingray took a whole mullet on sundown and decided to pack up after that. Landed successfully and of course released to flap another day. At least I got to stretch the arms and test out the gear.

Day 4 - dawn session at Hill River. I felt more confident that the fish would be on the bite with it being 24hr + after the new moon and the Almanac promising me a 'black' day. First couple of casts I felt a couple of definate chopper bites but it shut down soon after without me getting a fish on the beach. Again no signs of baitfish. Spent the night session at home with the family. Bought fish and chips instead. :-)

Weather was poor and that hindered fishing with cold westerly winds, huge swells and rain to boot. But there was something else in the air last week as fish were definately off the bite. A nice little break nonetheless and our first family trip. Will head back in summer when the baitfish return....probably en route to Wagoe.... :-)

Countryside there is beautiful at the moment - wildflowers just starting to pop there heads out and green, green, green. Probably went a month of so early.

Roberta - did cruise around the caravan park looking for you but not sure if you were there?

Cheers,

Buschy

After coming back from a recent fishing trip i was pushed for time as we were heading out for dinner. So what did i do with my two pinkies - I FROZE THEM WHOLE - NOT EVEN GUTTED

Is this gonna cause a problem when i pull them out to eat them next weekend?

I went out behind the 3 mile today fishing 8-20m and it was really quiet.  I anchored and burlyied and only got a few wrasse, how did everyone else go or was i fishing the wrong spots

rig

heres some pics of carp

Me and hunterdive (Jared) just got back from five days fishing on Bluejuice Charters' maiden season out to the Montebello Islands.  It was pretty surreal being out there as it was the first liveaboard charter that either of us had done... I think liveaboards are a bit like the holy grail of fishing charters - everyone wants to do one at least once in their life - so when you finally find yourself doing one, you've got to get your head around it.  Anyway that's what it was like for us.

We flew up to Exxy on the Friday afternoon and to our surprise it was actually cooler there than it was in Perth.  The easterly was cranking across the runway and while we knew that the weather was looking pretty good for our trip we couldn't help but feel a bit nervous, especially having seen the winds up when iFish were out there a couple of weeks previous.  So we jumped on the shuttle bus and got dropped off at the marina where we met Gary the skipper.  We were stoked to find out that there were only going to be four of us heading out to the islands, and me and Jared made up two of that four! What a score.

The plan for the rest of the day was pretty simple - settle in, start tinkering with our gear, help Gary stock up as the supplies were delivered (if we wanted to) then off to the Potshot Hotel for tea, grab some drinks for the trip and then head back to the boat where we'd set off somewhere around 11.30pm.  Everything went according to plan and at 11.30 we were woken up as the boat began the trip across to the islands.  We all stayed asleep for most of the journey albeit it was broken by the odd heavy bump as Bluewater hit a larger wave or the dull throb of the diesels regularly broke through the sleep haze too.  Ear plugs helped with this though and they have a fair supply of them onboard for this reason.

We woke up at about 7am and wandered upstairs to see where we were and found we were about level with Barrow Island, two skirts were skipping along about the back of the boat connected up to a Tiagra 30 and the TLD 25, and there was a range of breakfast cereal on the table along with bread, a toaster and a few spreads.  By the time we finished breakfast and had a yarn it was time to start fishing - and the fun started.

I think the best way to summarise how things worked is to do a quick itinerary and then let the pictures do the talking.  Given it was over five days I've found it a bit hard to pull all the relevant pictures together in order so to kick it off here's how it worked for us:

• Day 1 - morning: trolled, bottom bounced / jigged a few spots in 50-70m getting onto big spangleds, a mix of trevs, a few macks on the drop; afternoon: trolled Tryall Rocks, what a gnarly fishing spot that is.  Mack heaven. We got so many macks there it wasn't funny.
• Day 2 - morning: bacon and egg breakfast, more Tryall Rocks trolling double and triple hookups the norm; afternoon: fished in 50-70m for a mix of chinamen, reds, bludger trevally and a 35kg+ estuary cod.
• Day 3 - morning: hit the road at 5am to fish the change of tide - found more giant spangleds, big crimson seapearch, red emps and rankins; afternoon: tried to find something with a bill, managed to get one sailfish interested but he ended up leaving.  Evening: jumped onto one of the islands in the evening, so beautiful.  Got a few small trout, no shortage of angry charlie courts.  Saw a few nice sized noahs around in the shallows too.
• Day 4 - one of the best days fishing Jared and I have ever had. Period.  Trolled for sails in the morning, hooked a few shark macks and while pulling it in had a sailfish buzz it right at the back of the boat.  Saw it size on with its sail up, all its colours lit up. Could have jumped off the marlinboard and nailed it I reckon, it was that close.  It disappeared pretty quickly but then when the next sharkie got caught and was retrieved we had a wahoo buzz it in the same way - side on all lit up.  Spectacular visuals.  We eventually ended up at Tryall Rocks trying to find the king of all macks. While we didn't get it, the action there was unbelievable.  I'm hoping to do an article on it for FW-Reeltime so I can include some vid but suffice to say I've never seen so many macks pulled in during one session and we had them going on poppers and stickbaits it was that crazy.  Incredible topwater action. Ended up in 30m fishing with softies and got some great trout, red bass, trevs and some impossibles.
• Day 5 - morning: the wind had picked up quite a bit overnight so we tried a couple of sheltered spots but had a fair amount of trouble fishing them - the wind was whipping one way and the current the other.  We ended up starting a lazy trip home late in the morning.  We stopped off at a few spots for some bits and pieces, had skirts out the whole way and got onto some tuna including a yellowfin, hooked up but lost two sails and then just as the sun went down one of the TLD's went off and Jared was on and he landed his first, and the only billfish for the trip, a nice little black.  Got back to the marina at about 11pm that night.
• Day 6 - we hung Exxy for the day - washed and cleaned most of our gear, went into town for lunch, met one of the FW Exmouth locals, deepwater, at the bottleshop (nice to meet you mate).

That's enough typing for now.  The pics are divided up into different themes.

THE FUN FISH

There were no shortage of the fun fish up there. Every couple of spots you'd drop onto a school of trevs and the fun would begin:

My first GT, not the way I expected to get it but I'll take it anyway.  The Lemax SlimMax / Wahoo combo worked a treat.

This one came up on bait and gave old Kev a bit of a workout

This is a PB golden for sure, didn't get a size or weight unfortunately but it certainly didn't relent all the way up through 60m.  Awesome fun.  Got him using the Ajiking Samson-Z, a perfect reel for this sort of fishing.

A nice little bludger from shallow water

THE RED FISH

Then there were the fish that everyone wants, those that are table quality - and some fun along the way.

Some lovely red emperor hit the deck

Some nice crimson seapearch

And trout (stay tuned for about three more pics for the future of this tasty number)

THE BOAT AND CREW

The Bluewater is a pretty comfortable boat, especially when there's only 4-5 people fishing!  It's got everything you need - a small lounge area, shower, bunks downstairs cater for up to ten people and then there are a few other spots where you can sleep if you'd prefer to be outside.  Gary (skipper) is a funny bloke who doesn't mind a good joke or story and cooks up a pretty good feed.  We had everything from lasagne to steak and even had a roast one night.  Of course there was always fish and / or squid when we could get them.

Nice tucker

Great crew (we had a local bloke called Ben who was an absolute legend) who don't mind going the extra yards including a quick cray hunt one night (to no avail - but how's the serenity anyway...)

And do their thing well with the fish

THE MACKS

These things were everywhere.

They'd nail plastics

And jigs (nice sized tooth mark and a fair bend in the end from the hit)

The sharkies were just a pain

But the spaniards were great fun

Unless the sharks got them first

That's enough for me for one night, I'll put up Part 2 in the next night or two which shows some of the incredible beauty of the place as well as a few more fish pics of other species we got onto.  You've got to get up there if you can, what a place.  I can now see why the Pilbara Pirates love it so much.  It's one of those spots that is raw beauty - like most places that far north I guess... it's a harsh environment but still in that you get incredible beauty.

Have just been looking through some photos for a decent profile pic, and came across the photos of the best pinky I've caught to date. I caught it while chasing YTK's on the 3 mile during last year's demersal closure. Easily the best fish I've ever caught, took some great runs and gave the stinkin penn 750 a good workout. After a few quick photos it was back in the water and gone in a flash. In the effort to get him back in the water as quickly as possible I forgot to measure it, though I reckon it was at least 750mm, possibly 800.

Tim.

Professional fisherman catching snapper on the gravel patch in cockburn sound sights a 5-6m White culling the snapper as he fishes.

BE CAREFUL YAK FISHOS.

Sorry for the delay but here are the pics to go with the report i did on tuesday.

2 x 6kg groper

1 x 8kg dhu

1 nice trout

= a friggin good feed of fish for 4hrs diving

plenty more spotted for next time. will be taking the camera under when this area gets revisited

Hi all..... Just throwing together a quick report from todays sesh

Left the ramp about 730am after fuel and fluid stops and met a stiff sth east out offshore - tad different from the nth easter forecast. Tried some new ground today so after a bumpy 1hr or so in the boat and half freezing we got to our intended area and sounded around. Bottom looked really good with some nice ledges and sand holes so a quick gear up - some old cray heads smashed for burley and into the drink. Rob was in first and had shot at and lost a small YTK before i had even thrown the mask on! Fairly dissapointed as he hadnt shot one before and wanted something for a curry. Once both of us where in the drink we covered abit of ground revealing some reallly nice looking stuff. First drop i did was onto a baldie of about 3-4kg but took a chance and left it be hoping for something bigger... That decision payed off 3mins later when on the my next drop i fell quietly onto a ripper baldie - took the shot from above and angled and it was game over for him... A good starter and a pb baldie for me at just over 6kgs... Bit more swimming revealed a few more smaller but still well shootable baldies and a just legal trout we passed on. Time for a move but things where looking up! Vis was really good seeing the fish life and bottom comfortably in 12-13m.

Next move and rob was again in first - i tossed some burley and 3 hooter baldies came flying in to say gday! How conveniant... Jumped in and spotted rob from above as he ghosted down and took a perfect shot on one of the trio only to see the shaft fall out! Watching from above the fish never went too far and after a short chase i dropped down and had my 2nd for the day.... A tad bigger then the first and 2 ripper fish in the esky before 8am!

Bit more searching around here and it was a great dive! Big baldies everywhere (left for next time) a nice parrot was spotted and a good dhu that decided one look was enough and slinked off into the distance.... The highlight for me came when i was laying on the bottom in about 10m seeing if i could arouse anythings curiosity when i got the feeling i was being watched... Slowly turned around to come face to face with a magnificent blue groper of about 15kg! I had never seen one til now and boy what a beautiful fish they are!

Continued on and a last change of spots took us to a ledge that again looked good from above... The sounder showed fish and jumping in showed it wasnt lieing... Another big baldie and parrot dawdled past (musta known they where safe!) before i hear robs gun go off and swim oer to assist... Up he come empty handed having shot at and missed a decent parrot... That in turn arroused the interest of 3 beaut dhuies! Breath up - relax - tuck over and game on.... few short kicks and in range - dead.... Lovely 8kg dhuie stoned... Rob was abit peeved id pinched his fish whilst reloading but he went down and clean missed again on another nice dhuie! Not his day unfortunently... Finally after dispatching the dhu and returning to robbie i spot him slide down under a big overhang - extend his gun and fire... He attempted to pull it from the cave but not budging so we traded spots whilst he caught his breath and i was able to extract a beaut 700mm trout for him.... 4 fish limit and wat a bag we had!

Home before lunch time!

have got a couple of pics but im off to sleep ready for night shift! throw something up later... hope you enjoyed the read

poddy

Hi Guys,

Went out on Saturday with Whitey from seasport Charters.

The Boat departed just before 6am and withjust a short boat trip out to our first stop we were greeted with some rampaging Samson fish. As usually we were all dancing around the boat  but having a great time kepping the deckie busy with knotted lines.

For the next few hours we fished the outer bombies and managed to get into some nice fish. We ended up with Baldies, Pinkies, Breaksea, Dhuies, Harlequin fish, Skippy and my personal favourite a Queen snapper on a Fanky Jig.

Once we hit the boat limit for demersals we had a stop at the wreck and another nice samson fish was brought to surface with another dropped. The biggest Samson fish tipped the scales at 25 Kgs

A huge thankyou to Whitey and the crew from Seasport charters for making this trip possible.

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Venturing north from my locacl southern ground is becoming fairly productive. Plans were to chase tunas but with 8 fish before 830 we changed plans and headed for some barges. Plenty of amberjacks to 10kg, sambos, small snapper, finks, and  huge skippy. Moved inside to the outside edge of the bank. Queenies, breaksea, cutttlefish and a little dhuy.

A couple of southern rights swum right under the boat and we finishewd the day off with a 7foot tiger shark.

and 1 casualty.

Had another great day out off cervantes today with a mate.

Got to my favourite spot around 7.30 and first drop produced a sgt baker for me and a big snap off for my mate. 2nd drift i nailed a nice baldie. 3rd drift was a bit off the mark so only had a few little pickers. 4th drift, another baldie of around 58cm. went to set up for another drift but i noticed a boat heading our way and i wasnt about to give up the location of my new favourite spot so we headed a bit further south and the first drift saw about a 6kg dhuie hit the deck. i decided to get my mate in on the action so i retired the rod for a few drops and held the boat over spot x.

3 drops in a row saw my mate get 2 BB's and a baldie wich were all released. i dropped again with my 10lb stick and a 7 inch gulp in BBQ chicken colour and as soon as i hit the bottom i was on and with a good fight i had another dhuie on the deck and my mate also landed a little dhuie both were realesed. the next drop i hooked up solid to what i called to be a big dhuie but i just couldnt hold it on my lightish placcie rod. the last few drifts saw more dhuies and baldies come to the surface an quickly returned to the water.

by this time it was around 10.30 so we decided to go to the back of the reef for a troll and within minutes of the X-Rap being towed behind the boat it was hit hard but the hooks didnt stick. a few minutes later the X-Rap got hit again, this time the hooks stuck and after a short fight we had a nice little yellowtail king at the boat, after a quick photo he/she was set free. we trolled for another half hour but had nothing else to show for it so we headed back thru the passage in glassy conditions. i finally got some photos so i will post them up tomorrow. cheers

I headed down there around 4pm stayed till 9 pm there was nothing

not even a bite its been dead for weeks now

used prawn mullie squid  Sp's lures it was dead as

i will have to find some new spots to go  realy need to catch something ..

Had a slow start to the day, and it wasnt until 1.30pm or so before I got on the water.

I decided to do a few drifts fishing a squid jig on 1 rod and a variety of plastics and natural baits on the other.

I have been experimenting with some different plastics and first drop I hooked up. It was only some type of parrot but off to a flying start.

Now, forgive me for thinking that the squid jig bobbing up and down in the rod holder would catch the cuttlefish. No someone forgot to tell the one that ate my soft plastic lure a short time after.

I came across a good sounding and had a go at anchoring and berleying seeing as they wernt responding to drifting, but nothing really happened except for another nice size cuttley that went about 5 or so kilos.

Pulled the pick and did a few more drifts for 5 nice sized squid and the usual wrasse.

Have been getting a heap of skippy at a spot near by so I went to have a look and no suprises, had a mountain of em on it.

Starting the drift a way off em I would fish a bait until they showed and do the switch to a light bream stik and small jig. Awesome fun!! Kept 4 and released a heap more.

I was on about the 3rd drift and nearly on skippy hill when the bait I was fishing got clobbered hard. A nice run and some headshaking and I was starting to think I had hooked a 1/2 decient pinkie or something.

After a great tug o war I caught a bit of colour beside the boat and I nearly tripped over. A nice KGW slid into view, "fark, the net, wheres the net? Im gonna loose it!!!the net, shit i aint lifting it in."

I finally got the net under it and stoked is an understatement. 55cm of plump whiting and a new personal best!!! you ripper!!

I backed the boat in at 7.30pm so all in all a nice little arvo sesh out of Bunbury.

Well, last break myself, Woody and Wirthy decided to make an assault on Carnarvon.  The original plan was to do a nightfish from the Jetty then spend a couple of days fishing Garths rock, all depending on the weather.

After dropping into Telomac in town and having a chat with Ben & Mario, we got the lowdown on what was happening and headed off to the jetty for an evening fish.  To cut a long story short it blew it's arse off and was colder than my ex-wife so next day we dropped back into the tackle shop for another chat and to get some bait.  The boys put us onto a beach with some nice gutters and we spent the arvo fishing the rocks around north of Quobba for a couple of nice fish, a brilliantly coloured spangly, gold spot trevally and got smashed by a few unseens.

We decided to move on to our next spot as it was getting late in the arvo.  We set ourselves up on the beach and lobbed some yellowtail fillets out into the gutters.  Just before dark both Wirthy and Woody had a good run each but failed to hook up.  As the sun sank below the horizon Woodys rod started to buck and dance and he raced to it and set the hook.  Five minutes later in the torchlight a beautiful Mulloway showed itself to us, this was what we had come for.  The lie detector told us 7kgs, we were wrapped, baits were reset and we waited.

The boys had decided to call it a night as we had a drive back into town when Wirthy yelled out that my rod had gone over.  By the time I got to it the fish had dragged it down the beach and was entering the water.  I lifted the rod, and on, this felt like a solid fish, some good runs and bumps.   Big headshakes gave it away that this was no shark and as it came into view in the shore break we realised that this was a better fish. The scales pulled down to 16.7kg, and we were stoked.  I decided to keep it as the fridge at home was empty of fish.

Next day we decided to hit Garths rock as it was our last day before having to head home to Tom Vegas.  Well it's been a long while since I climbed into a rock spot, actually have never since being in WA so both Wirthy and I were a bit apprehensive about the track that Woody suggested, that being straight down, quite similar to the cliffs of Gallopilli.  That didn't happen and we walked in from Camp Rock, definitely not a walk/climb for the faint hearted.  Anyway once down on the ledge we watched schooling tuna busting up not too far out.  About my third cast I came up tight on a nice mack tuna around the 8kg mark, released to fight another day, had forgotten how much fun these are from the rocks.

Woody then hooked up on a nice Estuary Cod, quick photo then back he went as we had enough fish in the freezer.  Not long after he played tug a war with a much bigger cod which he somehow managed to land, great fish from the rocks.  Well the SouWester was starting to come in and the sea starting to build so we made the decision to leg it while we still could.  Anyone been to Garths before knows why as the Gauntlet would be impassable in any sort of swell.

All in all a great trip with good mates.  Also forgot to mention that both Mulloway were mine and Woody's first real Mulla that weren't soapies, woohoo!! We'll Be Back......

Took Jeff's and my boat out for a run from Tantabiddi on Saturday with Jeff was his aunty Helen and uncle Simmo and I had young Alex as my decky. The first pic is Alex making the most of resting his rod on the side rail while pulling a gold band snapper out of 115 metres as in PIC 4 you can see that I was busy with one and couldn't give him a hand.

Pics 2-4 6-8 show aunty Helen's first ever bronzie [released] on her first boat fishing trip with Jeff doing the honours and taking it off the hook for her [HE'S HER HERO!!!]

Pics 5-6 show Helen and Simmo with a honeycomb cod and a saddletail to add to the tally.

Over all between the two boats we finished up with 12 gold band, a saddletail, a honey comb cod, a tomato cod [one of a double header] a small striped tuna and 3 pan size snapper with a painted sweetlip, tomato cod, a couple of nor west blowies, a milky shark and the small bronzie thet Helen caught. All in all a good day out on the water with many whales to keep us company

On Friday we went round to Tantabiddi with the aim of putting the boat in and taking a run out to have a go at a few bottom fish. On getting to the ramp we decided that it looked too sloppy for my boat and would wait and see if the wind would drop off as forecast in the meantime out with the only small gear to have a bash at what was smashing the hardyheads all along the shore.

The rod was Mum's [ she's out of action with a broken arm] a pink uglystik fitted with a Sienna loaded with 6lb and a small chrome slice.

Jeff was first shot and hooked a reasonable queenfish on about his 5 cast then it was my turn and in came a golden trev, both from the northern side of the Tanta's groyne. Two visitting croweaters saw what was going on and tried with their lightest gear, jig sticks and small deep divers with no success.

Having a look at the southern side showed more action and it was Simmo's turn with the rod resulting in another golden trev after no more that 5 casts.

At one stage who ever was on the rod had fish smashing at the hardyheads within 20 feet of them while bringing their fish in. We ended up keeping the first queenie and golden with another 7 being released to fight another day. Was a magic session with all the fish in the range of 1-2kg, good fun,

I can't believe I caught tailors trolling the swan. I was in shock yesterday when me and a mate were taking the dinghy out for a cruise and hooked on a few nice tailors with a couple of rmg scorpions... It was freaking awesome experience for me and reminded me of Kalbarri when trolling for mackies, I recommend for those who have a small dinghy to give it ago,

well i finally got the new boat finished, big thanks to paul at albany fiberglass for the new floor.
went to two peeps on saturday morning with colin (dreamweaver)to have a look around and set upthe new sounder (hds5)
the beach launch resembled an episode of keystone kops so we were soaking wet by the time we got going.
with no waypoints to go on and not much experience at the bay we headed out.

was having cavitation issues on the way out so couldnt trim the motor and get over the chop so we just aimed for somewhere sheltered.(motor needs dropping a bit)
found some nice broken ground around what the chart called mermaid point and set up for a drift.
first drop scored a nice queenie,followed by a harlie, was rapped.
next drift another 2 queenies and a nannygai
another spot produced a harlie that went about 58
next spot produced a horse of a queenie that went hard and hit the tape at about 84
the retrieve went much better with no issues
all in all a ripper morning on the new tub
I would have included photos of colins fish but i think thats best left for him to comment :-)

Another August another Mackerel Islands trip... Fished new islands, found new ground - managed 32 fish at last count, over 7 great days, majority on lure, sp or jig. All fish, with exception of 1 or two trout kept for dinner were returned. 

Trolling produced a marlin out wide, many mackerel, cobia, tuna and BIG Rankin on a lump which came up to 7m... 

The light tackle action in close to various islands produced fantastic sessions on golden's, small GT's, mackerel, spanglies, queenies etc etc .... 

Heavy spinning failed to produce a big GT, after a lot of effort, but we were kept entertained on many other good fish... 

Great trip - planning for next trip has begun. 

It's been three months since I landed in town.......

While I've been up Lake Kununurra a few times chasing Sooties and beer with mates I haven't really given the Barra a go.......to much work and a few trips out with the backpack exploring country given the cooler dry season weather.

Well no more working weekends and time for Barra.

Hit the ramp just below the diversion dam and just floated downstream with the current. The water temp was around 25-26 but a mate from work got a few Barra last weekend on fly so I knew some were around.

Not long after my first Ord River Barra, nothing big but a good sign I still had some Barra mojo considering it has been many years since I caught Barra in the NT.

This was taken on a squidy slick rig cast in hard under the trees and let drop, and he smashed it about two seconds into the drop.

The Business end of the catch. Released to fight another day.

Spent the rest of the day catching Barra.

One is spoilt this end of town...

So much habitat.......

Barra lily time........perfect habitat for a Barra to ambush......

Just doesn't get any better than this.........

Dropped 5 fish and landed two. And saw some big fish.

Not to bad considering it was my fisrt day on the Ord. Was either using slick rigs or texas rigged 100mm squidgies on Gamat worm extra gap 6/0 hooks. Flicked a few lures but only a few taps, the plastics cast hard into the 'wood' and slowly dropped smacked the Barra. Nothing beats the visual of Barra smacking plastics and jumping to throw them......

Round two next week. Time to head back to the ramp......

Wonder what the rich people are doing.........

Thanks to Paul (Bones76) for the rod that caught the Barra. Told you it would catch the first Barra. Sweet plastic rod mate.

Well just over a two weeks ago myself and a couple other lads got back from a trip to Dirk Hartog Island. We planned to drive up on Friday the 6th, so we left at 7am in the morning with the boat in tow. Took about 9 hours to arrive in Denham.

Went to the pub that night, had a few brews, a meal and watched the footy. We then headed to the caravan park where we hit the sack and amped for a big day the next day.
Woke up at seven, grabbed some ice from the servo, a bacon egg burger, and we were off to the northern tip of the island.
2hours later and we arrived at the shack at Withnel point, backed the boat up to the beach and unloaded the gear. The water was a little rough going over but it was a SE’ ster so she was behind us. Once all was offloaded we grabbed our 6kg flick rods and proceeded to flick lures around the bay, as it was too rough to head out in the boat, as the SE’ ster was increasing all day.

The result early was 3 good sized flatties until we came across a school of tailor off the point, which was one-a-cast mayhem, and a bit of fun for the first day.

Woke up Sunday and again a howling SE so no going out in the boat and flicking around the bay again, no tailor today though, water quality was a little lower so we had to settle for some flatties again

Monday arrives, and the weather gods are against us. A howling easterly!? After flicking for mediocre fish for two days and having cape Levillian in sight, we decided to make the trek to turtle bay, unknowing it was infact 12.5km away. Finding various lures washed up on the beach, a full 20L fuel drum of petrol, bottle of fresh water, dead dugong and a rod and reel however, broke up the walk.

Albeit 3 hours later we arrived at the world famous Turtle Bay, and to no surprise, 2nd cast hooked up to a big tailor, only to pull the hook at the shore. Couple more casts then decided to do a little more walking, up the beach about a 500m we were greeted by hundreds of sharks sitting on the reef. First cast and I Pulled a tailor out?! Couple of casts over the reef and we noticed the sharks were chasing the poppers. Sharks on light gear and poppers, how good.

After losing a few lures, we walked back to the bags and rested up for the walk back. Although that didn’t stop dad having a cheeky cast and hooking into another school of tailor, we all had to have a crack seeing as we had come this far, and managed to pull a couple decent ones out before the sharks got there.

Time for the walk home, tide was out so it was a fair bit easier on the hard sand. As we were trekking back we noticed the wind was dropping a fair bit and by the time we got back at 4pm it was time for a quick fish in the boat, as our fish supplies were low. Headed out and hooked into a few nice little pinkies and red-throat, and a little broad-barred on a soft plastic. We now had dinner sorted.

Tuesday dawned and the wind had swung even more to the north and the decision was made to baton down the hatches, nailing some tin to the front of the shack, we would have to wait it out....

That night the wind did ease again, so we fished the point and managed to pull 3 soapies off the reef, but it wasn’t all that pleasant, and we were now itching to get out in the boat.

Wednesday morning arose and the wind looked like it was light enough so we headed out in the boat, we trolled to cape Levillian and around the shoals and picked up a decent broad-bar and a nice Mack Tuna, in between plagues of nor-west blowies....

The weather was getting a little rough now so we decided to start trolling back, and wouldn’t you know it, 6m of water a nice bommie and the rods start zinging, with the strong winds fishing was becoming difficult and I pulled the hooks on my fish, Trav however bought his in and it was a nice 10kg GT.

So we decided it might be worth a few more trolls. In between numerous kakka broad-bars we caught another two GTs of the same sort of size 8-12kg and a couple of nice pinkies as well.

By now the weather was getting hairy and we had to head in. Welcomed by 2-3ft breakers in Withnel bay it was going to be tough to get to our mooring, which was on the inside fairly close to the beach…

Now it was action stations, we managed to get through the breakers, but the boat was now side on to the waves in a small gutter and we had to approach the mooring side-on, if we missed it the boat was going to be on the beach, no room for error. Trav, our most experienced in the field, due to a few seasons on the Cray boats as a pup, Took to the bow and got ready. He grabbed the buoy and jammed it over the bow rail trying to wedge it there before the next wave hit the boat. He managed to get it over, however the waves hit the boat a little earlier than expected and he just couldn’t get his hand out from between the buoy and the rail in time. As the boat pulled back on the mooring which had the buoy attached to the end, the wedged buoy jammed his thumb between it and the rail, crushing it. OUCH.

Dad rushed to the front and grabbed the buoy while Trav came to the back, grabbed the wheel and slammed the boat into gear giving the old man just enough time to get the mooring loop onto the hitching point at the front of the boat. Now we had a problem, Travis' finger needed attention. So we took him back to the shack and treated him to the best of our ability, due to the limited first aid gear we had, it would be suffice for now.

We decided to pack up and head back as soon as there was a break in the weather. We waited and waited, but the wind did not ease at all that day, so it was going to have to be one more night and hope that it would be calm the next morning, at least it hadn’t rained though.....

We woke the next morning to the calm before the storm, and would you believe it, rain! But the water was flat and perfect for the trip back, so, with head-torches on, we began to relay the gear to the boat and fuel her up. 745am we were off on the way home. 2hours later and we arrived in Denham. We got the boat out of the water and went to the caravan park for a shower.
Once we were clean I went with Travis to the silver chain in Denham, and they did all they could to fix him up for the drive back to Perth.

We arrived back in Perth late Thursday night, and Friday morning Travis had an operation to pin the bones together and reconfigure the nail bed, all good.

All in all a great trip with real unlucky weather, the last three times we have been up to Withnel, 2 times it has blown NE which is the only wind that you don’t want. Very unlucky I say. However if one of these days we do get some days of good weather up there it will be unbelievable, with the amount of spots we have in the GPS now… But that is what makes the fishing so good I guess, the weather has the ultimate control of the fishing.....